Turkey Tips?

[bulldog42]

This year I've really started to get more into turkey hunting after a couple years of just going out a couple times per season, but have been running into some problems that I hope some of you experienced hunters can help me out on. I've been spending some time on public land walking along creeks and fields where we have seen turkeys while deer hunting or have seen while doing other things, but as it always goes I can't seem to even get any turkeys to even call back at me, let alone find them to try and hunt when I actually go to hunt them. I got them to gobble back one time right at the beginning of shooting hours one time while I was set up on a field one time, but they completely shut down after that. We also have some private land to hunt but it is mainly pasture land with some lightly wooded draws and a couple ponds and I wasn't sure how productive this would be for turkeys since there doesn't seem to be a major food source such as crops. I don't really know where to start with turkeys and am hoping I can get some sound advice here     . As always thank you all for any help you all are able to provide!

[Charlie Lamb]

Try to find where they roost. Be out where they "might" a half hour before dark and listen. You can often hear them fly up... gobbling, yelping, wing beating.
Don't crowd them.

[sveltri]

I just got back from Kansas and had a pretty tough go at it.  The gobblers didn't seem to be leaving the hens at all during the day.  If you can find a lone gobbler you can probably call him in, otherwise just give it a little time until the hens are going to their nests during the day.  When they go, the gobblers will go back out on the prowl.  If you don't have a crow call I'd get one, it's a good way to locate the toms without them paying too much attention to you.

[jwhitetail]

One basic tip that I would give (And I have learned this one the hard way)is to NOT over-call.

On a hot tom just give him a teaser yelp and if he responds let him sit and stew on it for quite a while.

If you are set up and waiting I never yelp more than once every 10 minutes.

This can be tough but if a tom has heard you, then he knows you are there and is thinking about it... so go real easy on the call.

Good luck

Jerry

[bulldog42]

Yeah I do have a crow call but it doesn't seem to be working a lot. The owl hooter call along with all the actual owls in the woods seem to be getting them to gobble better than the crow call. The one day I did have them gobbling back at me and at the owls, they were gobbling in literally every direction around me so I actually wasn't sure where to go from there. As for setting up near a roost, one of the places I hunted was a field bordering some woods that as of two years ago had a turkey roost in it. Only reason I found this out was because me and my dad were deer hunting it one day and we had thirty turkey come off of roost there.

[Redfeathers]

Try to find where they roost. Be out there where they "might" be half an hour before dark and listen. You can often hear them fly up... gobbling, yelping, wing beating.
Don't crowd them.
Hunt Sharp
Charlie
What Charlie said!!
You crowd them while on/near the roost, they will leave most of the time. I use to roost them, back off and be back early the next morning waiting for daylight about 150 yards away. Give a couple tree yelps light and easy and keep shut until you hear them fly down. They can pinpoint your location pretty well with just a few tree yelps.
Just want to add what jwhitetail said "do not over call"
Good Luck

[tradarcher816]

If you don't have any luck in the am I've had luck in the middle of the day. The birds by then are quiet but I've had them sneak into my set up while other hunters were headed out to lunch. I've left my blind up and pulled my decoys in to go eat only to return to fresh tracks 5yards from my blind. Don't know enough about them to say why it has worked in the past I just know that it has. Good luck.

[Redfeathers]

Mike has a good point there, some tend to leave couple of hours after daylight. Turkey's can travel a good distance in a days time.

[Cyclic-Rivers]

Roosting areas change.  Don't expect them to use the same trees in the fall as they use in the spring.

[KyRidgeRunner]

You mentioned private land with pasture and a few ponds.  I've got a farm with a similar setup that produces birds every year.  Often we get out there mid morning, catch them In the field and "tail-fan" them in.  Actually if they don't come to the fan I've turned the back of the fan towards the turkeys and crawled across an open field to them! Just attach the fan to a dowel rod or an old arrow so you can stab it in the ground to make your shot.  Best of luck to you!